EDVARD MUNCH’S GRAPHICS FROM 50 YEARS

PRESS RELEASE

Edvard Munch’s graphic works explored many of the same themes as his paintings. Death, illness, and fear, as well as love and eroticism, were central subjects in his art. For Munch, art was a means of communication between people. It was important to him that his works reached the public and did not remain “mere scraps of paper in people’s homes.” Early on, Munch articulated bold goals for his art:

“We want something more than just photographing nature. Nor do we want to paint pretty pictures for living rooms. At the very least, we want to attempt to lay the groundwork for an art that can be given to people. An art that is born of the heart’s blood of its creator.”

Born in 1863, Edvard Munch received his artistic training in Kristiania (Oslo) during the naturalist period of the 1880s. He was a precocious artist; by the age of 20, he had already garnered attention for his early exhibitions. Slightly older painter Christian Krohg recognized Munch’s significance as early as 1889, declaring Munch the only “third-generation representative” of Norwegian art: “Munch is different.”

It is unclear exactly when Munch began experimenting with printmaking, but his first drypoint attempts are believed to have occurred shortly after his return to Berlin following his 1894 exhibition in Stockholm. Within a few months, and without formal instruction, he engraved masterful prints on copper plates, such as Consolation, Harpies, and The Sick Child. He soon mastered etching techniques and aquatint as well.

In the winter of 1894–95, Munch also began creating lithographs. His first lithograph was likely Puberty, which he carefully drew with grease crayon directly onto the stone. Later works, such as Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm, Vampire, and Madonna, demonstrated greater confidence and were executed as bold, black lithographs.

During 1895, Munch created several of his most famous graphic works in Berlin and Oslo. After returning to Paris in 1896, he focused extensively on printmaking, learning to create color prints on both stone and copper. This period produced works such as Munch’s renowned color lithograph The Sick Child.

In Paris, Munch also adopted a third classic technique: woodcutting. In remarkably little time, he developed his own unique style and expressive form in this medium. He pioneered work with color woodcuts, including the beautiful Moonlight. For this piece, he used three plates, one of which was sawed into sections. Each segment could be inked with a different color and reassembled for printing like a puzzle, eliminating the need for separate blocks for each color. This method is also evident in works such as The Lonely Ones and Two Women on the Shore. Munch is believed to be the first artist to consistently use plate-sectioning in woodcuts, a practice later adopted by many others.

The selection of works presented at the Pori Art Museum, drawn from the Munch Museet Collection in Oslo, includes 45 pieces from 1894 to 1944. This exhibition offers a comprehensive view of Munch’s extensive graphic production, both in terms of chronology and themes.

Publication:
ISBN 951-9355-23-5 Edvard Munch: Grafiikkaa vuosilta 1894-1944
Pori Art Museum 30.11.1989-28.1.1990
Pre-word: Museonjohtaja Alf Bøe, Munch Museet
Article: Gerd Woll, Munch Museet
Finnish translation: Virpi Vainikainen
Photographs: Munch Museet, Oslo
Lay-out: Hilkka Kuusijärvi
100PRINT, Pori 1989

Translated with ChatGPT